Codemasters ‘broke Bodycount agreement’

Codemasters has found itself on the receiving end of haymaker criticisms from the developer it recently hailed as ‘star talent’.

Stuart Black, who in July announced he was to leave Codemasters’ Guildford studio, now claims his old employer broke assurances – the mitigating factor of his departure.

“An agreement was broken,” he told Gamespot UK. “No one really wanted to fix it. I decided to move on.”

Black said any embellishment on his decision to leave “seems to be self-generating noise”.

“There have been some quite odd and silly rumours,” he added.

In November the Bodycount project was delayed for an unspecified period.

“My decision to leave Codemasters and Bodycount was the hardest choice of my career,” Black adds in the interview.

“It was clear that Codemasters were unable, or unwilling, to provide the support needed to realise the vision I had for Bodycount.

“Some of the marketing initiatives and trailers were not, in my opinion, doing justice for the game”.

“I felt we got to the halfway mark and it was good. People who played it were digging some of the more risky choices. Then the future just shattered in front of me.

“Thankfully I had a slow wind-down and exit, but the first month was just awful. David Fincher once said, ‘Never make a movie you can’t walk away from.’ These are wise words.”

Elsewhere in the interview Black comments on the extensively misreported claim that he was the creator of the 2006 Criterion FPS Black.

“I’ll take the opportunity to say Alex Ward is the creator of Black,” he said.